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TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUẢN LÝ VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HẢI PHÒNG
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ISO 9001:2015
KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP
NGÀNH : NGÔN NGỮ ANH – NHẬT
Sinh viên : TRẦN QUANG TUỆ
Giảng viên hướng dẫn: TH.S NGUYỄN VIỆT ANH
HẢI PHÒNG 07– 2020
BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUẢN LÝ VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HẢI PHÒNG ---
HOW CAN EXTENSIVE READING BE APPLIED TO BETTER 2ND YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS’ READING SKILLS AT HAIPHONG
MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY
KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP ĐẠI HỌC HỆ CHÍNH QUY NGÀNH: NGÔN NGỮ ANH – NHẬT
Sinh viên : TRẦN QUANG TUỆ
Giảng viên hướng dẫn: TH.S NGUYỄN VIỆT ANH
HẢI PHÒNG 07 – 2020
BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUẢN LÝ VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HẢI PHÒNG ---
NHIỆM VỤ ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP
Sinh viên: Trần Quang Tuệ Mã SV: 1312101007 Lớp : NA1901N
Ngành : Ngôn ngữ Anh – Nhật
Tên đề tài: How can extensive reading be applied to better 2nd year english majors’ reading skills at haiphong management and technology university
NHIỆM VỤ ĐỀ TÀI
1. Nội dung và các yêu cầu cần giải quyết trong nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp
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2. Các tài liệu, số liệu cần thiết
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3. Địa điểm thực tập tốt nghiệp
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CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP
Họ và tên : Học hàm, học vị :
Cơ quan công tác : Trường Đại học Quản lý và Công nghệ Hải Phòng Nội dung hướng dẫn:
Đề tài tốt nghiệp được giao ngày 30 tháng 03 năm 2020
Yêu cầu phải hoàn thành xong trước ngày 30 tháng 06 năm 2020
Đã nhận nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Đã giao nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Sinh viên Giảng viên hướng dẫn
Hải Phòng, ngày 01 tháng 07 năm 2020 TRƯỞNG KHOA
CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc
PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN HƯỚNG DẪN TỐT NGHIỆP
Họ và tên giảng viên: ...
Đơn vị công tác: ... ...
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1. Tinh thần thái độ của sinh viên trong quá trình làm đề tài tốt nghiệp
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2. Đánh giá chất lượng của đồ án/khóa luận (so với nội dung yêu cầu đã đề ra trong nhiệm vụ Đ.T. T.N trên các mặt lý luận, thực tiễn, tính toán số liệu…)
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3. Ý kiến của giảng viên hướng dẫn tốt nghiệp
Được bảo vệ Không được bảo vệ Điểm hướng dẫn
Hải Phòng, ngày … tháng … năm ...
Giảng viên hướng dẫn
(Ký và ghi rõ họ tên)
QC20-B18
CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc
PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN CHẤM PHẢN BIỆN
Họ và tên giảng viên: ...
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1. Phần nhận xét của giáo viên chấm phản biện
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2. Những mặt còn hạn chế
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3. Ý kiến của giảng viênchấm phản biện
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Hải Phòng, ngày … tháng … năm ...
Giảng viênchấm phản biện
(Ký và ghi rõ họ tên)
QC20-B19
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CONTENTS
KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP ... 1
Giảng viên hướng dẫn: ... 1
Giảng viên hướng dẫn: ... 2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... 3
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ... 4
1.1. Rationale ... 4
1.2. Aims of the study... 5
1.3. Methods of the study ... 5
1.4. Research questions ... 5
1.5. Scopes of the study ... 6
1.6. Design of the study ... 6
CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ... 7
2.1. Reading ... 7
2.2. Intensive reading ... 9
2.3. Extensive reading ... 10
2.4. Self-selected reading ... 12
2.4.1. Definitions ... 12
2.4.2. Benefits ... 14
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ... 15
3.1. The reality of learning and teaching English for the English major sophomores at Haiphong management and technology university. ... 15
3.1.1. The teaching staffs ... 15
3.1.2. The students ... 15
3.2. The questionnaire ... 15
3.3. Research methods ... 16
3.4. Data analysis ... 17
3.5. Summary ... 26
CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTIONS ... 28
4.1. Suggestions for teachers ... 28
4.2. Suggestion for students ... 32
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS... 39
5.1. Summary ... 39
5.2. Limitations of the study ... 39
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5.3. Suggestions for further study ... 40 REFERENCES ... 41 APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE ... 43
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the process of doing the graduation paper, I have received a lot of help, assistance, guidance, encouragement and idea contribution from my teachers, family and friends.
My great gratitude goes to my supervisor Viet Anh (M.A) for his enthusiastic guidance, helpful ideas and corrections during the process of completing this graduation paper.
Secondly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Ms. Tran Thi Ngoc Lien (MA), the Dean of foreign language department and all the teachers at Haiphong management and technology university for the precious lessons in my study process that helped me a lot during graduation time.
It would be a mistake if I didn’t mention the second-year English majors Haiphong management and technology university who took part in my survey questionnaire enthusiastically.
Last but not least, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to my family and friends who always encourage and inspirit me to complete this graduation paper.
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale
Reading, along with listening, falls into the category of receptive skills, which are used to absorb and retain knowledge. Reading teaches you how English sentences are constructed. It provides you grammar, vocabulary, and nuances. It also helps improve writing. You learn to read as a beginner, then read to learn when you get more advanced. It is an indispensable skill in the process of learning English.
As the importance of reading skills has long been realized by the teaching staff of Haiphong Management and Technology University, a lot of support has been given to English majors at the university to provide them a comfortable learning environment. There are English reading materials aplenty to be found at both physical and digital libraries of the university; reading lessons are also paid extra attention to ensure students absorb from the reading materials as much knowledge as possible.
While being a great help to students, reading lessons at school, also known as intensive reading, are often perceived as dry and difficult. Constant focus on intensive reading materials such as news articles, reports, contracts, etc.
will gradually exhaust students’ consistency and interest in reading, thus their distraction, or, furthermore, a halt to their reading activities.
Applying extensive reading, whose main purpose is to help build reading enthusiasm and habit, alongside with intensive reading will complement its effectiveness and diminish its downsides, as well as enhancing students reading fluency and speed through a lot of reading. However, applying an outdated type of entertainment like reading in this day and age will take a lot of effort on both students and teachers
For all the above reasons, I conduct a study on “how to apply extensive reading to better 2nd year English majors reading skills at Haiphong management
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and technology University” with an expectation to help Management and Technology University students, especially second-year English majors improve their reading skills.
1.2. Aims of the study
The study aims to provide second-year English majors with an overview of reading in general and extensive reading in particular and give them suggestions so that they can improve their English with extensive reading.
1.3. Methods of the study
The study aims to provide second-year English majors with an overview of reading in general and extensive reading in particular and give them suggestions so that they can improve their English with extensive reading.
Survey questionnaire is used as the main instrument in quest of finding out the attitude of students towards reading with the cooperation of 21 2nd year English majors at Haiphong management and technology university. Statistics based on the questionnaire will then be shown on charts and be analyzed to provide an overview of the topic. A few oral questions will also be given to them to have a deeper inspection of the topic. conclusions will then be made based on the data collected and analyzed.
1.4. Research questions
The afore-mentioned aims will be reached by utilizing these following questions:
What are the thoughts of 2nd year English majors at Haiphong management and technology university about reading?
How can extensive reading be applied to better reading skills of 2nd year English majors at Haiphong management and technology university?
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1.5. Scopes of the study
The subjects of this study limited to second–year students majoring in English program at Haiphong Management and Technology University. 21 students will be involved in this survey.
The instrument for the survey is a self-administered questionnaire. The participants are asked to answer the questionnaire by themselves. The questionnaire consists of both closed-ended and opened-ended questions.
1.6. Design of the study
This study includes 4 chapters as follow:
Chapter 1: introduction: includes the rationale for the study, the aims of the study, and the scope of the study. The design of the study will also be presented in this chapter.
Chapter 2: theoretical background: includes definitions of reading and its importance, as well as definitions of intensive and extensive reading, and its benefits.
Chapter 3: methodology: includes the reality of learning and teaching English for 2nd-year English majors at Haiphong management and technology university, as well as the questionnaire, research methods, and data analysis.
Chapter 4: suggestions: includes suggestions on how can extensive reading be applied to better 2nd year English majors’ reading skills at Haiphong management and technology university.
Chapter 5: conclusions: includes the summary, the limitations, and suggestions for further study.
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CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1. Reading
These definitions below will be the summaries of how reading works, what it entails, and what readers will attain from it.
Wikipedia defines reading as the complex cognitive process of decoding symbols to derive meaning, a form of language processing, a means for language acquisition, and sharing information and ideas. Like all language, reading is a complex interaction between text and reader, shaped by prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and the language community, which is culturally and socially situated. Success in the process of reading is measured as reading comprehension.
David Nunan, a renowned linguist, also defines reading as “a fluent process of readers combining information from a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning and the goal of reading is comprehension”.
As indicated in both of the definitions above, the key to successful reading is comprehension. It is “the ability to process text, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows. Fundamental skills required in efficient reading comprehension are knowing the meaning of the words, ability to understand the meaning of a word from discourse context, ability to follow organization of passage and to identify antecedents and references in it, ability to draw inferences from a passage about its contents, ability to identify the main thought of a passage, ability to answer questions answered in a passage, ability to recognize the literary devices or propositional structures used in a passage and determine its tone, to understand situational mood (agents, objects, temporal, and spatial reference points, casual and intentional inflections, etc.) conveyed for assertions, questioning, commanding, refraining, etc. and finally ability to determine writer’s purpose, intent and point
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of view, and draw inferences about the writer (discourse-semantics).”
(Wikipedia)
These definitions should also be taken into account:
“What do we read? The message is not something given in advance--or given at all-- but something created by interaction between writers and readers as participants in a particular communicative situation” (Roy Harris, 2000)
“Reading is asking questions of printed text. And reading with comprehension becomes a matter of getting your questions answered” (Frank Smith, 1997)
“the abstraction of meaning from a visual configuration, and was shown to involve desirably not a painstaking grapheme- by- grapheme decoding but the postulation of alternatives of meaning which one reduced by the parsimonious interaction of the component process with the visual configuration” (Elias and Ingram, 1977:55)
“Literacy practices are almost always fully integrated with, interwoven into, constituted as part of, the very texture of wider practices that involve talk, interaction, values, and beliefs.” (James Gee, 1996).
“A psycholinguistic guessing game. It involves an interaction between thought and language. Efficient reading does not result from precise perception and identification of all elements, but from skill in selecting the fewest, most productive cues necessary to produce guesses which are right the first time. The ability to anticipate that which has not been seen, of course, is vital in reading, just as the ability to anticipate what has not yet been heard is vital in listening.”
(Kenneth Goodman, 1967)
Reading should be considered as an active skill as it requires various tactics and skills. Learners/Readers are expected to think and actively participate in the process. In recent years, a lot of focus has been placed on extensive
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reading, which aids learners’ progress in reading development and improvement.
Importance
Reading is indispensable in the process of learning English. Linguists have found a tight connection between reading and English proficiency. In other words, a good reader is more likely to excel at second language acquisition than a weak reader. Good readers are able to comprehend the individual sentences and the organizational structure of a piece of writing as well as grasp ideas, follow arguments and detect implications. They are also able to quickly determine the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context – failing this, they can use the dictionary to effectively do so. In summary, good readers are able to draw from the writing what is important for the tasks at hand. And they can do it quickly.
They also found a close relation between reading and readers’ lexicon.
English learners with large vocabulary are usually good readers. This is not very surprising considering that the best way to attain large vocabulary is to read extensively, and if you read extensively you are likely to become a good reader.
2.2. Intensive reading
According to Grellet (1981:4), “Intensive reading means reading short text to extract specific information. This is an accuracy activity involving reading for details.”
Besides, Long and Richards (1987) indicate that it is a "detailed in-class"
analysis, led by the teacher, of vocabulary and grammar points, in a short passage."
Brown (1989) states that intensive reading "calls attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like."
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Nuttal (1989:23) writes “intensive reading involves approaching the text under the close guidance of the teacher..., or under the guidance of a task which forces the student to pay great attention to the text. The aim of intensive reading is to arrive at a profound and detailed understanding of the text: not only of what it means, but also of how the meaning is produced. The "how" is as important as the "what", for the intensive reading lesson is intended primarily to train students in reading strategies.”
All of the above definitions support the idea that intensive reading is often classroom-based, which readers “focused on the language rather than the text”
(Rob Waring). Intensive reading aims at gaining further understanding of the language, including linguistic and semantic aspects of a reading text and surface structure details such as grammar or discourse markers. It is highly recommended for acquiring vocabulary, practicing specific reading strategies or skills.
2.3. Extensive reading
Here are some definitions of extensive reading:
“Extensive reading is considered a way of language learning, including foreign language learning, through large amounts of reading.” (Wikipedia)
"Occurring when students read large amounts of high interest material, usually out of class, concentrating on meaning, "reading for gist" and skipping unknown words." (Long and Richards, 1987)
“Extensive reading means reading longer text, usually or one’s own pleasure. This is a fluency activity mainly involving general understanding.”
(Gellet, 1981:4)
"To achieve a general understanding of a text." (Brown, 1989)
“The best way to improve one’s knowledge of foreign language is to go and live among its speakers. The next best way is to read extensively in it.”
(Nuttal, 1989:168)
Extensive reading as a way of language learning can be viewed in terms of purpose or outcome or a learning procedure: Beatrice Mikulecky (1990), for
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example, calls it pleasure reading while Stephen Krashen (1993) terms it free voluntary reading.
Contrary to intensive reading, which is “reading short text to extract specific information, an accuracy activity involving reading for details” (Gellet, 1981:4), extensive reading is usually associated with getting the gist of the material through large amounts of reading. Extensive reading focuses on the comprehension of main ideas but not specific details. Readers pay attention to the meaning of the text than the meaning of individual words or sentences.
In addition, building readers’ enthusiasm and habit is the goal of extensive reading. Readers will become more willing and more motivated to read; Reading will then become a habit and readers will be more likely to take initiative.
Furthermore, readers will be able to read for their own purposes and be able to adjust reading strategies to match different kinds of text because they are more aware of their reading materials and how to access it.
The benefits of extensive reading, according to Karshen (1993), are
"enhanced language acquisition and literacy development, more ideas and information, greater success in life, loss of verbal memory, and more fun." What can be improved through extensive reading are background knowledge, reading comprehension and overall language competence.
The precise nature of extensive reading may vary depending on readers’
motivation and institutional resources but an ideal characterization will include the following (from Day & Bamford, 1998, p. 7-8):
1. A variety of materials on a wide range of topics is available so as to encourage reading for different reasons and in different ways.
2. Students select what they want to read and have the freedom to stop reading material that fails to interest them.
3. The purposes of reading are usually related to pleasure, information and general understanding. The purposes are determined by the nature of the material and the interests of the student.
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4. Reading is its own reward. There are few or no follow-up exercises after reading.
5. Reading materials are well within the linguistic competence of the students in terms of vocabulary and grammar. Dictionaries are rarely used while reading because the constant stopping to look up words makes fluent reading difficult.
6. Reading is individual and silent, at the student's own pace, and, outside class, done when and where the student chooses.
7. Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower as students read books and other material they find easily understandable.
8. Teachers orient students to the goals of the program, explain the methodology, keep track of what each student reads, and guide students in getting the most out of the program.
9. The teacher is a role model of a reader for the students -- an active member of the classroom reading community, demonstrating what it means to be a reader and the rewards of being a reader.
10. Students read as much as possible, during class time but also engaging in individual, independent at home, ideally of self-selected materials.
Extensive reading is time-and-energy consuming and by no means a replacement for intensive reading as a means of English learning process, but there will be a significant improvement in store for those who are willing to engage in the activity as it can provide very effective platforms for promoting reading improvement and development from elementary levels upwards.
2.4. Self-selected reading 2.4.1. Definitions
It can be defined as “the part of a balanced literacy program during which children get to choose what they want to read and to what parts of their reading they want to respond. Opportunities are provided for children to share and
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respond to what is read. Teachers hold individual conferences with children about their books.” (Cunningham, 1999, p. 21)
Self-selected reading is also known as Free Voluntary Reading. In The, Stephen D. Krashen (2004) declares: "FVR means reading because you want to"
and for school students, this means "no book report, no questions at the end of the chapter, and no looking up every vocabulary word. FVR means putting down a book you don't like and choosing another one instead. It is the kind of reading that highly literate people do all the time" (Power of Reading (FVR):
Insights From the Research, p. 10).
Aside from the two names provided above, self-selected reading also has many different names, such as: Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading (USSR), Sustained Silent Reading (SSR), Drop Everything and Read (DEAR), Daily Independent Reading Time (DIRT), Sustained Quiet Reading Time (SQIRT) and High Intensity Practice (HIP). All these names agree on the same idea: “The intent is to develop each student’s ability to read silently without interruption for a long period of time” (McCracken, 1971).
McCracken (1971), a renowned reading expert, developed SSR based on six guidelines as follow:
1. The students read self-selected materials silently.
2. The teacher models by reading silently at the same time.
3. Students select one book, magazine, or newspaper to read for the entire time period.
4. A timer is set for a prescribed, uninterrupted time period.
5. No reports or records are kept.
6. The whole class, department, or school participates
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2.4.2. Benefits
"Self-selection allows students more latitude to be deeply involved with the learning process, thus fostering an interest in, as well as developing an ownership of, the reading process" (Kragler, 2000, p. 133).
Harmes and Lettow (1986), Lazar (1957), and Ohlausen and Jepsen (1992) (as cited in Kragler, 2000), state that "self-selection helps students make decisions about their reading: for example, the types of reading they are going to do, the types of ideas they will gain from their various reading experiences, and the reading levels of books or other materials; it also provides students with real purposes for reading" (p. 133).
“Reading what they enjoy may help students to develop a reading habit, leading them towards the goal of becoming lifetime readers.” (Hughes-Hassell, 2003; Krashen, 2004).
Students are unarguably the most beneficial party in self-selected reading activities. Being able to choose reading materials of their liking boost students’
interest in the material they read, build them a healthy yet economical habit of reading, and at the same time relieve the pile-up stress from constantly reading the difficult-and-dry materials provided to them by their teachers and parents.
Alongside with mental benefits mentioned above, they will also gain knowledge, expand their lexicon, and improve their comprehension skills as well as reading fluency.
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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1. The reality of learning and teaching English for the English major sophomores at Haiphong management and technology university.
3.1.1. The teaching staffs
The teaching staff of Haiphong management and technology university as a whole and the foreign language department in particular have high professional level and are not only highly responsible but also well qualified and enthusiastic. Moreover, all the lecturers of foreign language department always take extra effort in their teaching so that students can effectively absorb knowledge; they always innovate their teaching style, as well as inspecting students’ mentality to ensure they stay comfortable while still being productive during lectures. Students are also regularly recommended reading materials suitable for their current English competency levels, which helps enhance their reading skill as well as their English proficiency.
3.1.2. The students
The research was undertaken with the participation of students in faculty of foreign language. The minimum age of participants is 19. They were 21 sophomores in their third semester of their academic years at Haiphong management and technology University. Most of them have basic knowledge of English as they have had English as their core subject during the secondary education phase. They’ve also undergone close observation and evaluation of teaching staff during their first year at the university. Therefore, self-selected reading is viable for them as a means to better their reading skill and English proficiency.
3.2. The questionnaire
The questionnaire, which consists of 10 questions which can be categorized into three research questions, will be delivered to 21 second-year
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English majors of Haiphong management and technology university to gather information for the study.
The survey questionnaire is designed for these main purposes:
Assess participants’ English levels to see if they meet the requirement for reading extensively in second language.
Inspect their attitude towards reading.
Find the linkage between their English levels and their reading frequency.
3.3. Research methods
The questionnaires were directly attributed on short notice during participants’ break time to ensure the reliability and validity of the samples.
Before starting the questionnaires, they were informed of the purpose and significance of the study and clarified any misunderstandings about the survey questionnaire. They are also given written instruction on the handouts as well as oral explanation in Vietnamese to avoid ambiguity.
The data collected in survey questionnaires will be shown in the charts presented in the next chapter then analyzed to verify the connection between English proficiency and reading skill and if possible, find appropriate ways to encourage students to read extensively.
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3.4. Data analysis
Below are charts and data analysis based on the survey questionnaire:
Chart 1
Statistics provided in chart 1 indicate that most of the participants have learnt English for more than 6 years: 81% of the participants have been learning English for 6-8 years, 14% more than 10 years, only 5% below 6 years. In other words, most of them have basic English knowledge prior to higher education.
5%
81%
14%
experience of learning english
<6 years 6-8 years >10 years
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Chart 2
As indicated in chart two, none of the participants are below pre- intermediate level; most of them (71%) are at the intermediate level and a few of them confidently claimed themselves to be more advanced than that (19% upper – intermediate and 5% advanced). This means almost everyone can understand reasonably well, thus viable to self – selected reading.
5%
71%
19%
5%
English proficiency
Elementary Pre-intermediate Intermediate Upper-intermediate advanced
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Chart 3
It can be seen from chart 3 that most students don’t like reading. Only 9%
of the participants confessed that they liked reading. The other 91% found themselves reluctant to do it. When asked further (question 5), most of them agreed on the idea that reading is more or less a chore to them, they only read when required. They can’t seem to gather the motivation to read on their own volition.
24%
67%
9%
Opinion on reading
Stressful
A healthy habit, but it often hard to pick up a book and start reading Fun
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Chart 4
As can be seen in charts 3 and 4, participants are not aware of reading as an entertainment at all. When informed about self-selected reading as a form of entertainment but not a chore, half of the participants are eager to give it a try (chart 9). As long as we are able to remove the stereotype of reading as a chore, we can get people to read extensively.
0%
90%
10%
Reading Frequency
Never Only read when needed Read regularly and avidly
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Chart 5
As showed in chart 5, 81% of the students admitted having a hard time understanding what they read and had to constantly use dictionary while only 19% didn’t meet much difficulty with their reading materials. These 19% are from upper-intermediate to advanced levels; those who chose reading as their hobby also belong to these 19%.
81%
19%
Reading Fluency
have to constantly pause to use dictionary and have difficulty deriving the meaning of the text.
can read fluently with few to no pauses
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Chart 6
As indicated by chart 6, 5% of the participants find reading materials distributed to them on class incomprehensible and 81% find them dry and difficult; according to them, those materials were full of new words and complex sentences, which made it hard to keep track of what they were reading.
Only 14% found reading materials on class short and easy to understand.
5%
81%
14%
Students' thoughts about reading lessons and assignments
incomprehensible dry and difficult short and easy to understand
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Chart 7
According to chart 7, only 14% of the participants know their way around reading comprehension exercises. They are able to quickly and fluently move through text to locate the information they need then fill up the exercises while the other 86% struggle with new words, grammar, etc. There are many reading comprehension techniques that can be applied to better reading skills, but all of them require a certain level of reading fluency, which can only be obtained by a lot of reading.
14%
86%
Applying reading techniques on reading assignments
Read the questions first, then skim and scan through the text.
Scrutinize every details of the text then give answers to the follow-up exercises.
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Chart 8
When informed about reading as a form of entertainment and asked to choose between reading and other kinds of entertainment, only 10% showed interest in reading while the remaining 90% think otherwise. It is understandable that reading is not so prevalent anymore in this era of technology where movies, games, the social media, etc. exist. They consume much less time and effort while still providing the same leisure to reading.
10%
90%
Reading over other kinds of entertainment such as games, movies, etc.?
Yes No
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Chart 9
57% of the participants wanted to have more leeway to choose reading materials for their own, while 43% claimed that reading a book would be way too time-consuming, they’d rather do assignments. This can be considered a positive sign as students are willing to give self-select reading a try; with appropriate guidance from lecturers they will get use to reading and make it their habit in no time.
57%
43%
self-selected reading as a replacement for usual reading assignments
Yes No
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Chart 10
The participants claimed that they had almost all their learning materials distributed to them on class, thus no reasons to go to library; they don’t need academic textbooks and materials for their study program at all and therefore take no notice of the digital library. As we can clearly see in the chart, only 24%
of the participants visit library often, while 76% are foreign to the place.
3.5. Summary
There are two ideas that can be concluded from these charts:
Most students are foreign to reading as an entertainment, they mostly think of the activity as a chore. Change this stereotype then we can get them to read.
24%
76%
Do you visit our university's libraries often?
Yes No
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Those who have already read extensively and avidly excel in their studying; they know their way with assignments, test, etc. and rarely get bad grades. Popularize self-selected reading to those who are not yet familiar to this activity may result in a boost to students’ overall results, as well as building them an economical and healthy habit.
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CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTIONS
As indicated in chapter 2, self-selected reading " allows students more latitude to be deeply involved with the learning process, thus fostering an interest in, as well as developing an ownership of, the reading process" (Kragler, 2000, p. 133) and "enhanced language acquisition and literacy development, more ideas and information, greater success in life, loss of verbal memory, and more fun" Karshen (1993); but English majors of Haiphong management and technology university are for a fact averse to it (chapter 3). Changing this fact will require immense effort from both the teachers and the students themselves.
This chapter includes suggestions in hopes of removing this aversion of them and helping them build a reading habit.
4.1. Suggestions for teachers 4.1.1. Make reading easy
The first step to get students to read voluntarily is to get rid of the impression that reading is “dry and difficult”; they should be exposed to easier reading materials than what they usually have on class. Easy reading books for second language learners, namely graded readers, should be perfect starters for them.
An example of a graded reader
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Teachers should have students choose a graded reader of they liking, then let them read it for at least 15 minutes each lesson. If students manage to do it seriously and regularly, they will be able to build a reading habit in just a few months.
4.1.2. Promote the library
Success in promoting the library, an embodiment of knowledge, should also help make students more enthusiastic about their reading. Here are some tips to keep the library relevant:
1) Link study programs to materials readied in both physical and digital libraries, then constantly have students research those materials; this way we can keep them coming to the physical library as well as using the digital library more often.
Haiphong management and technology university library
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2) Offer welcome packets to new library card holders. They don’t need to be extravagant, just offer them something as simple as a folder with pamphlets, library resources, a list of library staff, a map, and other information that they will need to make the best use of the library.
3) Apply loyalty point system: library card holders can accumulate points each time they spend time at the physical library or request reading materials from digital library then use those points to exchange for rewards such as university fee discount, bonus points on tests, cafeteria coupons, etc.
4) Hold events for both loyal and future users with hefty rewards if possible and publicize them via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
5) Turn the library into an ideal place for group works: there should be a small zone at the library that allows people to interact with each other.
4.1.3. Use peer pressure
According to Wikipedia, “peer pressure is the direct influence on people by peers, or the effect on an individual who gets encouraged to follow their peers by changing their attitudes, values or behaviors to conform to those
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of the influencing group or individual.” It can be effectively used to influence those who haven’t already read extensively.
Teachers can start a book club and gather students there to read. They can let students choose books for each other instead of choosing books for them, as well as putting them in groups and having each group reading a particular book instead of letting them read a book on their own; They can even hold contests where students try to get their friends to read a book they have read before. The winner gets library loyalty points (which can be used to exchange various rewards as mentioned before).
Peer pressure
4.1.4. Be a role model
The teacher can be an example to the class by read a book him/herself They can also discuss in class about books they have been reading, or recommend to students what they’ve read that are available in the library.
Reading aloud to students can be counted as a way of introducing them to different genres or individual books.
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4.1.5. Keep record
Keeping record of what student are reading can be a big encouragement for them. It also helps when the teacher
wants to recommend books to students. The teacher should also be careful to explain the reasons why students should read extensively and highlight the benefits of extensive reading to them so that they know why they are doing it.
4.2. Suggestion for students
4.2.1. Prime your knowledge
First, skim through a chapter or two at a time, then look up the new words that repeatedly appear in dictionary. These are the keywords to the basic plot elements of the story or the basic argument of the article, knowing all these words beforehand should make reading the materials easier.
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Make a prediction about the plot or what the article will be about based on dusk jacket summary and cover illustration (headline and subheadings if the reading material is an article). This requires the reader to gather all the vocabulary and background knowledge that relate to the subject, making it easier to contextualize and understand the text.
4.2.2. Write books report and reviews
The readers can write out a piece about the book they have just finished, including a basic summary and their opinion of it. This kind of writing can help create a personal understanding of the text by making them reread certain sections of the text to confirm their thoughts. It can also be served as a test to recall the details of the text, and a good way to review vocabulary and grammar in the long run.
4.2.3. Do timed readings
Self-selected reading is a great way to improve reading speed, and timed reading will boost the readers’ improvement to an extent.
The first and the simplest task is a timed read. Set an amount of time with a stopwatch and choose a number of pages the reader will read. It goes without saying that texts vary a lot. Sometimes there’s a lot of dialogue that can be skim through without any problem but other times it’s full of difficult descriptions
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that may hinder the readers’ speed. Try to pick a time that would be reasonably difficult but possible despite whatever happens in the text.
The reader can make activity harder by picking a section, reading it and then timing how long it takes. Then, after having finished it once, reread that section at 20% increased speed. Of course, the first read should also be fast, or else the second read won’t be much of a challenge.
Another activity reader can do is find a rival to compete with them. Note that both the competitors must be at the same level of proficiency. Both of them can read a set number of pages to see who finishes first. The person to finish first should have to give a decent summary of the reading material to prove that they genuinely read it.
4.2.4. Join book club
Discussing books in a book club can provide great motivation to make sure the readers actually read what they want to. They also allow the readers to hear other people’s unique thoughts on the book. This can be a wonderful way to go over confusing grammar or confirm that the readers get the right comprehension. Sometimes people can misunderstand what the book has to tell when reading on their own. Besides the above reasons, book club discussions can be a great way to gather together for speaking and reading practice.
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4.2.5. Create chain stories
This is an activity that require a partner of the same level of proficiency as the reader.
Both choose two books of random topics. Each person chooses a book, reads and summarizes what they have just read to the other person in as much details as possible, after that switch books and read the next section.
4.2.6. Rewrite the story
Rewrite a story after reading it can solidify those vocab/grammar attained during the process of reading. It would also be fun to rewrite stories with terrible or unwanted endings.
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4.2.7. Keep vocabulary journals
The reader can keep a vocabulary journal for those words they inevitably miss when skimming the text in addition to the vocabulary that was attained from the first activity.
Just write down any words that seem important. A personal definition based on context clues and example can also be added so that the reader can see the context of the words next time they visit the journal.
4.2.8. Skim and scan
These two activities are for those who want to be able to read as fast as a native speaker.
For skimming, pick a chapter and read the first and last sentence of each paragraph then write out a summary upon finishing it. Reread the text to see if any important details are left out.
Scanning is a good option for readings that come with questions; readers can also try to generate questions for their readings based on the topic of the book or chapter. Then they can scan for the words that are related to the questions.
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4.2.9. Play visual novels
According to Wikipedia, “A visual novel is an interactive fiction video game genre, which originated in Japan, featuring text-based story with narrative style of literature and interactivity aided by static or sprite-based visuals, most often using anime-style art or occasionally live-action stills (and sometimes video footage). As the name might suggest, they resemble mixed- media novels.”
Example of a visual novel
“Visual novels are distinguished from other game types by their generally minimal gameplay. Typically, the majority of player interaction is limited to clicking to keep the text, graphics and sound moving (many recent games offer
"play" or "fast-forward" toggles that make this unnecessary), while making narrative choices along the way.” The content varies from drama to science fiction, horror fiction, fantasy fiction, etc. which can fit basically everyone’s tastes. In other words, this type of games is basically a book with graphics and sound. It is perfect for those who both want to have fun and improve their reading skills. Here is a list for anyone who is interested in giving it a try: world
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end economica, steins;gate, flowers series, when they cry series, clannad, danganronpa, narcissu, long live the queen.
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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 5.1. Summary
In conclusion, this graduation paper is conducted to investigate the learning situation at Haiphong Management and Technology University in Language Department and to find out students’ attitude about extensive reading as well as discussing how the activity can be applied to be better their reading.
The aim, scope and reason study were presented in chapter 1 for introduction.
Then definitions of reading and its importance, as well as definitions of intensive and extensive reading, and benefits of extensive reading were put in chapter 2. Especially, a survey was carried out and analyzed in the hopes of finding out students’ attitude towards extensive reading and the most efficient ways to get students to read extensively. Therefore, some suggestions on how to apply extensive reading to better students’ reading skills were recommended in chapter 4.
5.2. Limitations of the study
Although the study has certain strong points such as collection methods, namely interviews, survey questionnaires for students, due to limited time, lack of sources, the researcher’s ability and other unexpected factors, it is obvious that the study has got a number of short-comings.
First of all, due to the limited of time, experience to some extent, the researcher could not conduct other methods such as classroom observation which can make the obtained results more reliable.
Secondly, due to the limitation of scope of the study, the researcher only focuses on the second-year students in Faculty of Foreign Language which account for a small number of students at FFL, HPU. Therefore, the result of the study can’t be generalized. Besides, the study were unable to cover all aspects of self-selected reading.
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In addition, the methods suggested in this research are selected from different reliable but limited sources.
In spite of the mentioned limitations, I hope that this exploratory research will contribute to the better situation of teaching and learning English reading skills at faculty of foreign language, Haiphong management and technology university.
5.3. Suggestions for further study
This study couldn’t cover all aspects of extensive reading, it only focused on how to apply the activity to students. Furthermore, to get better results, the researcher should have invited more participants and the data collection method with further study with senior English majors at Haiphong management and technology university. Together with using survey questionnaires and interviews, observation is also necessary to get more persuasive conclusions.
All in all, despite the inevitability about limitations, the research has been completed under the guiding of the supervisor and self-effort. Any comments and criticism will be highly appreciated for better further study.
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REFERENCES
1. Brown, H. D. (1989). Principles of language learning and teaching (3rd ed). New York:Pearson Education.
2. Cunningham, P. M., Hall, D. P., & Sigmon, C. M. (1999). The teacher's guide to the four blocks. North Carolina: Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company, Inc
3. Day, R. R. & Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive reading in the second language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4. Elias, G. C., & D. E. Ingram. (1977) Cultural components of reading.
Singapore: Singapore University Press for SEAMEO Regional Language Center, 55
5. Goodman, K. (1967). Reading: A psycholinguistic guess game. Journal of the Reading Specialist, May
6. Grellet, F.(1981).Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge:Cambridge Univ ersity Press,4
7. Harmes, J., & Lettow, L. (1986). Fostering ownership of the reading experience. The Reading Teacher, 40, 324-330
8. Harris, R. (2000). Rethinking Writing. London: Athlone Press.
9. Hughes-Hassell, S. (2003). Promoting young adult literacy. In B. K.
Stripling & S
10. Kragler, S. (2000). Choosing books for reading: An analysis of three types of readers. Journal of research in childhood education, 14 (2), 133
11. Krashen, S (1993) The case for free voluntary reading, Canadian Modern Language Review, 50(1), 72-82
12. Krashen, S. (2004). The case for narrow reading. Language Magazine, 3(5) 10
13. Lazar, M. (1957). Individualized reading: A program of seeking, self- selection, and pacing, part V. The reading program in actions:
Demonstrations, discussions, evaluation. Reading in Action, 2, 141-144
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14. McCracken, R. A. (1971). Initiating sustained silent reading. Journal of Reading
15. Mikulecky, Beatrice S. (1990). A Short Course in Teaching Reading Skills. Longman
16. Nuttall, C. (1989). Teaching reading skill in a foreign Language. Oxford, England: Heinemanr Educational Books, 23-168
17. Ohlausen, M., & Jepsen, M. (1992). Lessons from Goldilocks:
Somebody's been choosing my books but I can make my own choices now!
The New Advocate, 5, 31-46
18. Smith, F. (1997). Reading without Nonsense. IRA Journal Vol. 27.
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APPENDIX
SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE 1. Your experience of learning English:
a. Less than 6 years b. 6 – 8 years
c. more than 10 years.
2. Your English proficiency level:
a. Elementary b. Pre-intermediate c. Intermediate
d. Upper intermediate e. Advanced
3. Your opinion of reading:
a. Stressful
b. A healthy habit, but it’s often hard to pick up a book and start reading.
c. Fun
4. Would you choose reading over other kinds of entertainment such as games, movies, etc.?
a. Yes b. No
5. Your reading frequency:
a. Never
b. Only read when needed c. Read regularly and avidly 6. Your reading fluency:
a. Unable to read without constant pauses to use dictionary b. Able to read fluently
7. Reading lessons on class are:
a. Incomprehensible
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b. Dry and difficult
c. Short and easy to understand
8. How do you do your reading exercises on class?
a. Read the questions first, then skim and scan through the text.
b. Scrutinize every details of the text then give answers to the follow- up exercises.
9. Would you choose self-selected reading materials as a replacement for usual reading assignments?
a. Yes b. No
10. Do you visit our university’s libraries often? And why is it?
a. No b. Yes
